Dome of Vredefort

The dome of Vredefort (in English: Vredefort crater ) is most important Cratère of impact known on Ground. Located on the territory of the State-Free of South Africa, the town of Vredefort was built inside even of the crater. The site is also known under the name of crater of Vredefort or site of the impact of Vredefort . In 2005, the dome of Vredefort was registered on the Liste of the world heritage of UNESCO for its landscape aspect and its scientific interest.

Formation and structure

The Astéroïde which struck the ground with Vredefort is one of most important ever to have run up against the ground, of a diameter estimated at 10 kilometers. The crater has a diameter of roughly 300 kilometers, broader than the 250 kilometers of the Bassin of Sudbury, and the 170 kilometers of the Cratère of Chicxulub. It is estimated to be old approximately 2 Billion S Année S, that is to say during the surface Paléoprotérozoïque. The site of the crater of Vredefort (27° 0 ′ S, 27° 30 ′ E) is one of the rare craters with terrestrial multiple rings, whereas those are frequent on another planets, of which the the Moon. The geological time and evolutions, the such erosion and the Plate tectonics , indeed generally destroyed this type of craters.

It was initially thought that the dome in the center of the crater had a ic origin Volcan, but Boon and Albritton in 1936 and 1937 suggested an origin impactite, which was confirmed by Daly in 1947. Modern technologies of investigation have permi definitively to prove the origin impactite after work of a great number of scientists between 1961 and 1995 .

Sources and notes

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